As we were in the capital for the biggest game in Irish international football since the 2002 World Cup, we made an effort to watch the big qualifier in Temple Bar. I am no lover of Italian football in the least; cynical and pedestrian paced, I wanted the Irish to do them especially as there are so many links to RFC.
I thought that the Ireland performance was excellent. They came so close to a win but no team in the world would ever realistically expect that they should beat Italy; for all my dislike of their antics, the Italians from 1-11 are all comfortable on the ball and are always a fearsome side. A point was they very least that Ireland deserved, it was a travesty to concede so late thanks to John O'Shea (inplausibly voted man of the match by Jim Beglin on RTE when St Ledger was the class act at the back; typical media bias towards Manchester United) being caught out of position so far up the field when a goal lead was there to be defended.
The deflation at the end was obvious and understandable to an extent, but even if the Irish had won the game Italy were surely certs to beat Cyprus (albeit an improving Cyprus) in the final qualifier and take that last automatic qualifying position. For a country with a population several times fewer than one of the most successful nations in world football to take the automatic qualification place so close to the wire is no mean achievement and it should not be forgotten that Ireland are unbeaten in the campaign. Their energy and commitment - reflected by their genius of a coach who has an impeccable CV - is almost enough to overcome their obvious flaws (failure to retain possession at crucial times, a midfield full of honest plodders like Keith Andrews; Andy Reid is the saviour according to the Irish media
). You'd have thought that the players and management would be national heroes.Apparently not so, because the media reaction which followed was, to me, extraordinary and made the ever-dislikeable sports media in England look timid. A general air of disatisfaction firstly in the papers, I then watched the Irish version of Setanta on the Sunday morning and Pat Dolan (Brother of the affable Eamonn Dolan of course) who clearly fancies himself as the new Eamon Dunphy (another cantankerous prat who doesn't seem to live in the real world) was almost apoplectic about the Trapattoni regime, seemingly expecting the Irish players (many of whom are of Championship standard) to be capable of defeating the likes of Italy. I really do not know what the Irish expect of their national team; I would imagine that Northern Ireland and the Scots would bite their arms off for Ireland's play-off place. I hope that Trapattoni and Ireland go on to qualify and stick it to the likes of Pat Dolan, Dunphy and Johnny Giles.
